September | 2015 | thenubianrapunzel

I am officially in love with planning! My latest beauty is the Kate Spade gold dot planner and it is gorgeous! I originally started with a black Filofax executive week to a page with appointments as I felt it looked the part for my day job but to be honest I’ve not really gotten along with it. I find the inserts incredibly boring and there isn’t really enough space to bee creative. I still use it but mainly so I look important and professional in front of clients when arranging future meetings. *cringe*

I’m in a group on Facebook called “UK Planner Addicts” and someone posted a picture of their Me and My Big Ideas (MAMBI) Create 365 Happy Planner and I instantly fell in love! Thus began a whole evening (and well into the early hours) of trawling the web trying to find one. I came across their website, which has videos of each planner and the layout inside (see below for link) and whilst I loved the look of the “My Life”, I was sold on the “Gold Dot” because of the beautiful quotes and affirmations. I love the layout and whilst I’m a bit disappointed with the flimsiness and tabs, I’m quite proud of it. (The newer planners now have laminated tabs)

http://www.meandmybigideas.com/create365-thehappyplanner/

That brings me nicely on to my new pride and joy! The Happy Planner goes beautifully with my desk set up and so I wanted cream and gold accessories to tie it all in. I ended up getting the Kate Spade pencil case but can’t quite bring myself to sharpen and use the pencils that come with it! Anyway, the quality is amazing and gave me the “bug”! I’ve now added the Kate Spade Gold Dots 17 month planner and its lush! The pages whilst delicate, feel really good quality and the tabs are laminated. I love the board casing as it feels so much sturdier than the MAMBI Happy Planner. This is definitely my “carry about” planner and I can’t wait to get started! Needless to say, my Happy Planner is now my desk planner😏

So! Summer holidays are well and truly over! The kids are back to school and it’s now safe to venture into shopping centre mid week again. Thank the Lord! I took a well needed break from pretty much everything and am ready to close this year on a high.
So back to business. Uni officially starts for me on Tuesday 29th September and today I received my timetable for the induction fortnight. A little while ago I posted my “shopping list” and I’ll give you an update on that later. (It’s looking good!) You may have also spotted my desk in the Instagram feed below but I’ll be posting more details about my home office and study area set up later on.

I’ve literally spent the past few weeks networking with some freshers from my uni and building a little Whatsapp group and trying to organise my life. It’s going well I think. I’ve devised a working pattern based on a sample timetable I got from someone going into year 2 and so far it’s looking promising. If I can stick to it, I might have time to sleep 😆 But seriously, I’m feeling so refreshed and motivated to get things done and I’m not prepared to lose momentum! I’ve invested in a Me and My Big Ideas Create 365 Happy Planner to help get me organised and it is working so well! At the moment I just map out my week and appointments but I intend to include meal plans and build in some sort of study plan aswell. I’m slowly easing myself into the world of planning (it’s actually quite a big thing!) and have started a little collection of washi tape, stamps and stickers already. Go me! Anyway watch this space as I’m getting a bit obsessed haha!